Mossad Assassins in Iran are Israelis, Says New Book

The assassins of top Iranian scientists were not Iranian agents for the Mossad but Israelis, according to a new book.<br/>

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Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, 09/07/12 08:07

Former Mossad director Meir Dagan

Israel news photo: Flash 90

The agents who carried out assassinations of top Iranian nuclear scientists were not Iranians working for the Mossad but Israelis, according to a book written by an Israeli journalist

In "Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars," (Levant Books), CBS News national correspondent Dan Raviv and Israeli journalist Yossi Melman wrote that the Mossad operates a special secret unit in called Kidon, Hebrew for bayonet.

The Israeli agents are from families from Arabic countries or from Iran, a Persian nation, and travel freely with fake documents within Iran .

The journalists cited a 10-year-old novel called “Duet in Beirut,” written by a former Mossad intelligence agent involved with Kidon, which offered insights into the workings of the unit. It operates outside Mossad headquarters, and the agents interrelate with phony names even with Mossad agents outside the unit.

However, the Mossad is being careful not to assume that its past successes will continue, and the journalists wrote that the intelligence agency is holding back from trying to carry out more assassinations, which have put Iranian authorities on high alert.

The assassinations have been part of Israel’s “secret war” against Iran’s development of nuclear facilities. The focus has shifted the past year to cyber attacks as part of a camping to slow down nuclear development without resorting to a military attack, whose success is far from guaranteed.